Selective call radios such as pagers are small enough today that they can be included in portable devices having other functions. An example of such a portable device is a watch which includes a pager, of which several brands are marketed today. Another example is a portable telephone, such as a Silverlink.TM. telephone, manufactured by Motorola, Inc., of Schaumburg, Ill., which includes a pager. A third example is a personal digital assistant, such as an Envoy.TM. manufactured by Motorola, Inc., of Schaumburg, Ill. It is desirable in some circumstances to be able to sell the portable device with the selective call radio included, but not activated, with activation of the pager anticipated significantly after the sale. For instance, a low cost pager may be included in an expensive watch. The manufacturer may decide that many of the customers buying the watch would be willing to buy it without the pager being activated, with or without potential later activation in mind at the time of the purchase. The cost of the paging feature could be underwritten by a service provider as a means to entice additional customers, keeping the price of the watch competitive with others having the same features (except for the pager). In the instance of the watch, the activation of the pager may not be accomplished by the seller, but rather the buyer, and under this circumstance, it is desirable to have the pager deactivated until the buyer authorizes activation.
In another example, in which a selective call radio is inactivated for a relatively long period of time before it is activated for use, the selective call radio is not included in a portable device, but is purchased in one country for use in another country at the completion of a trip which is several weeks long.
When a selective call radio is not activated for a relatively long period, as described above, it is desirable to reduce the power drain of the selective call radio to a very low level so that the selective call radio does not significantly shorten the life of the battery supplying power to the selective call radio. When activation of the selective call radio is ultimately authorized, it is desirable to have the activation accomplished automatically, thereby avoiding an inclusion of an activation function as another operator function of the selective call radio or portable device, and thus also avoiding any inadvertent activation of the selective call radio.
Thus, what is needed is a technique for automatically activating a selective call radio and for substantially reducing power consumption of the selective call radio while the selective call radio is not activated.